


Hive Mind

by Polomonkey



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Bees, Bullying, Camping, Field Trip, Fluff, High School, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Misunderstandings, Protective Merlin, Restraints, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-17 08:58:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5862799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polomonkey/pseuds/Polomonkey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur's the most hated person in school, and a Geography field trip only gives his classmates a chance to stick the knife in. At least until he ends up sharing a tent with Merlin...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kitty_fic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitty_fic/gifts).



> Written for a prompt on the Merlin Writers [theme of the month](http://merlin-writers.livejournal.com/211643.html#comments) over on lj! Thanks for the prod Kitty :) Also fills my 'accidents' square on hurt/comfort bingo

It wasn’t exactly a surprise when nobody wanted to share a tent with Arthur, but it still hurt.

Arthur kept thinking he would get used to this; the fact that no-one wanted to sit with him at lunch, that no-one wanted to partner him in class, that no-one wanted to come to his house after school. But he hadn’t yet. Every new rejection stung as sharply as the first had. 

Arthur had been popular all his life. He never had cause to think that might change. But then his father had used his job as financial advisor to embezzle money from half the families in town. He was currently serving three years in a minimum security prison, but there was no way for anyone to get back what had been stolen. Robbed of Uther as a figure to hate, they punished Arthur in his stead.

The adults could only snub him in the street or whisper about him in the supermarket. It was their children who could really make his life hell. And they did. The last five months had been a nightmare of being pushed around and taunted at every turn by people he used to consider his friends. Suddenly Arthur was the most despised kid in school and he didn’t have a single friend to turn to. He was a pariah and no-one would come near him; and he couldn’t see that changing anytime soon.

So he hadn’t wanted to go on the Geography field trip to Robin Hood’s Bay at all. But Gaius had signed his permission slip and firmly told Arthur that he was not to let the bastards grind him down.

“This is your best subject and the trip will be invaluable practical experience.”

“Invaluable practical experience in getting ignored by fifteen people at once?” Arthur had said dully.

Gaius had given his shoulder a sympathetic squeeze.

“Hold your head up high, Arthur. You’ve done nothing wrong and you have no reason to miss out.”

It had sounded inspirational at the time, but Arthur wished he hadn’t listened now. When he was standing in front of a circle of sniggering students as Mr Muirden repeated his question.

“Who’s going to be sharing a tent with Arthur?”

“I would, sir, but his dad might show up in the middle of the night and steal it,” Cenred shouted from the back, to a chorus of cheers.

“That’s enough, Cenred,” Mr Muirden said but his tone was casual. He had been one of Uther’s clients, too. The teachers couldn’t be seen to join in the bullying, but they didn’t have to discourage it either. Somehow they were always glancing the other way when Arthur was tripped up in the corridor or had his books ripped out of his hand and strewn along the corridor. He knew better than to look for sympathy from any of them.

“We only have eight tents, so someone will have to.”

Mr Muirden didn’t bother to disguise the note of apology in his voice. He was making it perfectly clear that he thought sharing with Arthur was a distinctly unappealing fate.

“I’d rather sleep in a rock pool,” Catrina muttered and there was a ripple of laughter. Arthur blushed hot; shame pooling in his stomach, fists clenching involuntarily. He hated them all, so much, for taking every chance they could to humiliate and belittle him. But he hated himself more, for even caring what they thought.

“No-one at all?” Mr Muirden said, amusement evident in his voice, and Arthur opened his mouth ready to tell them all where to go, even if he knew they’d jump at the chance to suspend him, because he couldn’t just stand there and take it anymore…

“I will,” Merlin said.

Arthur turned suspiciously, waiting for the joke. Merlin wasn’t smiling but surely it was coming, there was always a punchline nowadays. He had only joined their school two months ago but Arthur knew someone would have told him all about Uther by now. Even if Merlin had no personal reason to hate Arthur, he would most likely join in the mockery all the same.

“Really?” Mr Muirden said, wrong-footed.

“Yeah,” Merlin said.

Arthur craned his neck to see the others looking confused until Val turned to whisper something to Cenred and they both grinned.

Arthur turned to face the front again, sick to his stomach.

It was a trick. They’d put the new kid up to it and now he was going to do something awful to Arthur in the middle of the night. Arthur didn’t speak to his new partner; equal parts furious and anxious as Mr Muirden handed out the equipment. But the second they were alone inside the tent, he fixed Merlin with a glare.

“What are you planning?”

“Er… I was planning on putting pyjamas on if that’s okay with you?”

“Don’t play stupid,” Arthur said angrily. “Val’s put you up to something. Or Cenred. What did they tell you to do to me?”

Merlin raised his hands in supplication.

“Woah, woah, woah. No-one’s put me up to anything.”

“So why did you agree to share my tent?” Arthur snapped.

“Because nobody else would,” Merlin said bluntly and Arthur flinched, he couldn’t help himself.

“I don’t need your pity,” he said quietly, turning away.

“Bloody hell Arthur, give me a chance to explain! It wasn’t pity so much as the fact that everyone else was acting like a complete dick. Mr Muirden included.”

Arthur’s lips twitched at that, he couldn’t help himself.

Merlin saw and he grinned.

“Ah, you almost smiled at me! At this rate we’ll be best friends by tomorrow.”

“What?”

“We’re tent buddies now Arthur, it’s an unshakeable bond,” Merlin said as he delved in his rucksack. “Like going to war together, or being in Taylor Swift’s squad or something.”

“What the hell is Taylor Swift’s squad?”

“Wow, pretend I didn’t reference that, my reputation would be in tatters.”

“I wonder what it would be like to have a bad reputation,” Arthur said drily and Merlin laughed.

“See, look at all this banter flying around. We’re getting closer by the second, I can feel it.”

It was impossible that Merlin was genuinely this friendly. Arthur felt his gut tighten again; he wouldn’t let himself be played for a fool.

“You don’t have to talk to me,” he said stiffly.

“And what if I want to talk to you?” Merlin said cheekily.

“Why would you?” Arthur shot back and Merlin’s face fell.

“You think you’re not worth talking to?” 

Arthur felt exposed under Merlin’s gaze, like he’d accidentally revealed too much,

“I don’t think that,” he bit out. “Everyone else does.”

Merlin nodded.

“Because of what your dad did?” 

Arthur tensed.

“Yes,” he said shortly.

“Well, that’s just stupid.”

Arthur wasn’t sure if he heard right.

“What?”

“I don’t see how what your dad did has anything to do with you,” Merlin said reasonably.

Arthur stared at him for a few seconds.

“Neither do I,” he said finally.

“So there, then. We agree it’s idiotic to be mad at someone for something their father did,” Merlin said calmly. “And idiotic people’s opinions can be discounted. Ergo…”

“Ergo?”

“Ergo you are worth talking to. Check out my mad logic skills.”

Arthur smiled again and Merlin smiled back, before pulling a bag of marshmallows from his bag.

“But are you worth sharing these with? That’s the question.”

“I think I am,” Arthur said, suddenly feeling more light-hearted than he had in months.

“But how will you prove it?” Merlin said, eyes sparkling with mischief.

“By admitting that I did understand that Taylor Swift reference after all?”

“I knew it!” Merlin crowed. “Okay, have a marshmallow. _Swiftie_.”

They finished the whole bag between them by the time they finally fell asleep, nearly two hours later. Arthur was amazed at how much he enjoyed talking to Merlin. He didn’t realise how starved for human contact he’d been these last few lonely months. And Merlin was so… nice. And warm, and quick, and easy to talk to. It felt like the first good thing to happen to him since the day his father went to jail.

He might have stayed up talking all night if sleep hadn’t finally come for both of them. But it couldn’t have been more than half an hour later when Arthur woke up to the sound of rustling outside the tent. He turned over to see if Merlin had heard it too but there was no-one beside him.

It was likely Merlin had just gotten up to use the bathroom and yet…

Arthur felt distinctly uneasy.

Merlin had allied himself to Arthur by agreeing to share his tent today. What if the other students objected? What if they’d decided they needed to teach Merlin a lesson?

Arthur should go and look for Merlin. If they’d gotten to him, Arthur needed to help. It was only fair after what Merlin had done for him.

He was just unzipping his sleeping bag when the tent flap shifted.

“Thank God, I was about to go looking for you,” Arthur whispered.

Merlin didn’t answer. Arthur opened his mouth to speak again when he realised someone was coming in behind him.

“Merlin, who is-”

“I’m not Merlin,” the first figure said and suddenly they launched themselves on top of Arthur, pinning his arms to his sides. He opened his mouth to cry out and a hand clamped down over it.

“You can thank Merlin for leaving you alone though,” Val hissed in the darkness.

Arthur’s heart dropped. It had been a set up, he was right all along. Merlin had been playing him the whole night, lulling him into a false sense of security so he wouldn’t suspect what was coming. How could he have been so stupid?

He had really thought Merlin liked him.

Arthur didn’t resist when Val bound his arms behind him, or when he and Cenred shoved a scarf in his mouth to stop him calling for help. Let them do what they wanted to him. Merlin’s betrayal was the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

He didn’t have the strength to fight anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot last time to say thank you to everyone in Chatzy who helped me come up with this plot!
> 
> Please see (spoilery) warnings in the end notes if you fear being triggered by the bullying or violence tags

“Arthur Pendragon, are you ready for your sentencing?”

The grass was wet beneath Arthur’s knees where he knelt. The trees above blocked most of the moonlight but the torches his classmates were swinging shone through the gloom. He could see Cenred and Val at the front, faces lit up like grinning jack o’ lanterns. It was hard to make anyone else out. But he supposed Merlin was back there, somewhere.

His hands were still tied and the scarf gag was still in his mouth. Arthur was grateful in a funny way. He hadn’t been expected to speak during this ridiculous mock trial they’d put him through already.

He wondered if any of them had ever actually been inside a courtroom. He had. His father had begged him to stay away while the trial was going on but Arthur had to see it for himself. He didn’t think he’d ever forget how small his father looked in the dock, or how thin his voice became towards the end. The expression on his face when they finally took him away.

Compared to that, this was nothing. Kids playing games in the woods. And yet Arthur was aching inside, bruised to the bone. Merlin had reminded him what it was like tonight, to have friends. And then he’d taken it away again. Arthur couldn’t come back from that.

When he got back home, he was telling Gaius he wanted to move schools. Enough was enough. He couldn’t do this anymore.

But first he had to get through tonight. Arthur looked up, wincing as the full beam of a flashlight was turned on him.

“Your sentence will be a trial,” Cenred announced, ripping the scarf from Arthur’s mouth. “You choose which. Trial by water or trial by endurance.”

They’d done Salem and the witch trials in History recently. Arthur supposed he should be grateful they hadn’t studied Nazi Germany yet. He’d laugh at the foolishness of it all, but there was no doubt that his classmates were deadly serious.

Trial by water… they used to dunk witches in the river to see if they would float. There was a lake stretched alongside the woods, not twenty metres away.

Arthur couldn’t swim.

“Endurance,” he gasped out, suddenly overwhelmed by visions of being thrown into the water, of thrashing and flailing, of sinking down… 

There were a few assorted snickers in the darkness, and the pit in Arthur’s stomach grew even heavier.

“Trial by endurance!” Cenred said theatrically.

Suddenly rough hands were pulling him to his feet, dragging him over to a tree in the corner, muttering to each other.

“This one?”

“Yeah, Cat found it earlier.”

“Shit, I can hear them!”

Arthur couldn’t hear anything over the blood pounding in his ears and a funny hum beyond that. He felt someone untie his hands and tried to lash out but Alvarr grabbed one of his arms and twisted it up his back. Val took the other and held it out in front of him, gloved fingers digging into his flesh.

“You ready, Pendragon? No nice cushy cell with Sky TV for you like Daddy got, this is a real sentence.”

“He didn’t-”

“Shut up. Here’s how it works. You have to keep your arm still for thirty seconds or you lose. That’s it. Simple as. Even you can’t cock it up.”

_What was the catch?_

Arthur twisted his head this way and that but the flashlights were turned away and he couldn’t see properly.

“Can we get a timer?”

Catrina’s phone flashed beside him as Val pulled his arm forward.

“Ready?”

_Ready for what?_

“Now!” Catrina shouted.

Suddenly Arthur’s arm was thrust forward and through the middle of something. Shock made his brain freeze and for a few long moments he couldn’t understand what he was touching, or put together in his mind the odd sensation of something moving and crawling against his skin, something living…

Then the first pain erupted on his wrist and he screamed out loud.

A bee hive. They’d put his arm in a fucking bee hive.

Immediately Arthur tried to draw it back but he couldn’t move; Val and Cenred were holding him firm in place. He screamed again, shock setting in as another pain flared up on his finger, and again on his forearm. Panic made him wild and he struggled desperately, trying to wrench his arm from Val’s grip. There were shouts and cheers from all around him, the whole thing had a nightmarish quality about it, he could hardly take it in. 

He kicked out madly and managed to stamp down on Val’s foot, who drew back with a snarl. It was enough to knock Cenred off balance and then finally – _finally_ – his arm was free.

Arthur didn’t wait around for the bees to follow. He stumbled blindly away from the tree, crashing through the undergrowth until his legs gave out beneath him. He collapsed onto the grass and tried to cradle his arm to his chest. It was throbbing, agonisingly, and he could already feel it beginning to swell.

He lay there panting for a few moments, tears stinging his eyes, and then he heard heavy footsteps around him.

“How long?” Val said calmly.

“Fourteen seconds,” Catrina said, waving her phone. “He didn’t even make it halfway.”

“Oh dear. Trial by water it is, then.”

“No,” Arthur said hoarsely, attempting to rise to his feet. “This is too far, j-just-”

The punch to the stomach bent him double and he wheezed for breath, vision swimming.

“Too far?” Val hissed. “My dad lost his life savings because of yours. We had to move house. Don’t talk to me about too far.”

“I-I-“

Arthur couldn’t draw breath to speak properly. They were dragging him towards the lake and all he could hear was a quiet _no no no_ in his head.

He would die. He would drown. Surely they didn’t want that…

But no-one knew he couldn’t swim. He always kept it a secret, ashamed. He was never able to overcome his fear of the water. It used to make his father so annoyed.

_Father…_

“I can’t swim,” he whispered and nobody heard him. They were talking too fast, laughing too loud as they neared the water’s edge.

“Please, I can’t swim,” he said again and it drifted away into the night unnoticed.

When they hoisted him up into their arms he felt pure unadulterated terror, like he had never felt before. _Please wouldn’t somebody help him, somebody stop them, please don’t let them drown him, God please…_

“Merlin!” he shouted, once, desperately, and then he was in the water.

It was cold, a relief for a second on his burning arm, and then blindingly terrifying straight after. The water dragged him down, tugged at his clothes and his hair, pulled him towards the bottom. He was kicking and kicking but it was getting harder to stay above the surface, and he could only see the black sky above him, and there was so much laughter, laughter all around as he coughed and choked.

It was too difficult to stay afloat. Could nobody see he was in trouble? Did they think he was playing the game too?

His head started to slip underwater. He turned his eyes to the bank, one final plea, but no-one was moving to help. No-one except… except…

Someone was pushing their way through the crowd, someone was shouting, calling his name, someone was jumping into the water.

Someone was holding his head above the surface, swimming him back to the bank.

Someone was laying him on his back, begging him to say something, cupping his face in their hands.

“Merlin,” Arthur said tiredly.

Then he passed out.

 

***

 

The A&E at Robin Hood’s Bay was no more than a room, really. But they wrapped Arthur up in a blanket and tucked him up in a bed and gave him pain relief and hot chocolate to drink.

It wasn’t hypothermia or anything as serious as that. Just shock and exhaustion and what promised to be a nasty head cold. Arthur wasn’t feeling any of it yet. It was just nice to be warm again. Everything else seemed far away and distant somehow.

The brisk middle aged doctor was more concerned about his arm.

“Multiple bee stings can bring on all sorts of nasty side effects. Let me know if you get dizzy or want to vomit, we’ll need to keep an eye on you tonight,” she said firmly.

Then, after she’d treated the swellings:

“I can’t for the life of me imagine how you got these in the middle of the night.”

“Someone stuck his arm in a bee hive,” Merlin said fiercely and Mr Muirden blanched beside them.

“Is that right, lad?” the doctor said, clearly reconsidering her idea of Arthur as some reckless hooligan. “Sounds like assault to me.” 

She glared at Mr Muirden, suddenly allied with Arthur against him. 

“Have you called the police, then?”

“Oh. No,” Mr Muirden said, quailing slightly. “But I will. If that’s what you want, Arthur?”

There hadn’t been a snide comment from Mr Muirden since the ambulance had been called. He seemed rather dazed and it wouldn’t be a stretch to interpret the look in his eyes as guilt.

“No,” Arthur said, leaning back against the pillows. “Don’t call the police.”

The doctor gave a rather disapproving sniff, as though she considered all bee related matters to be an urgent police priority. But she didn’t press it, just gave Arthur’s knee a sympathetic squeeze and went off to find him some biscuits.

“You don’t want to press charges?” Mr Muirden said, after a long awkward pause. “I will, of course, back you up-”

“What’s the point?” Arthur said. 

There was another prolonged silence.

“Well we’ll at least fill out an accident form for you to take home to your da- to Gaius,” Mr Muirden said, and he looked as close to repentant as Arthur had even seen him.

But it was too little, too late, and Arthur wasn’t ready to make nice.

“Oh right, for one of my many accidents,” he said bitterly. “Like when I tripped myself over in the canteen. Or when I shut my own hand in my locker door. Or when I threw a rugby ball so hard at my own head I passed out.”

Merlin was looking enraged beside him and it helped somehow. It had been a long since he'd had anyone that angry on his behalf. 

Mr Muirden shifted uncomfortably.

“Yes, well. Perhaps we teachers haven’t been as observant as we should have been. It won’t happen again. And you can rest assured that the perpetrators of tonight’s… activities will be duly punished.”

“You mean it?” Merlin said, giving Mr Muirden a very hard look. And although the teacher would normally have reprimanded him for insolence, it was a mark of how shaken he was that he merely nodded.

“Yes. I should imagine they’ll be suspended. Or probably even expelled.”

“Good,” Merlin said grimly.

Mr Muirden coughed.

“Well. Yes. What happened tonight was unacceptable. I’m truly sorry, Arthur.” 

It sounded genuine enough and Arthur was tired of holding grudges. Grudges were what had led to all of this in the first place.

So he gave a sort of half nod and Mr Muirden looked faintly relieved.

"I'll contact Gaius to come and pick you up once-"

"No," Arthur said quickly. "I want to stay."

"Are you sure?" Merlin said.

"It's my Geography trip too," Arthur said. "I'm not leaving early because... because of this."

Perhaps it was just the drugs in his system, but Arthur felt a strange kind of calm inside him. He had faced the worst now. He had never known it could go so far or be so bad, but he'd survived it. There was nothing more they could do to him and so he would stay. 

“Right. Well... I think that's very commendable, Arthur. I’ll just make a quick call to Miss Johnson back at the campsite.”

Mr Muirden made his exit and Merlin let out a long breath.

“You remind me of a guard dog,” Arthur said, too worn-out to moderate his thoughts. 

“What?”

“You. You look like you’re gonna bite him or something.”

Merlin’s lips curved up slightly.

“I will. If you want me to.”

“Hold that thought. I think he’s trying, at least.”

“Trying isn’t good enough,” Merlin said, anger in his tone. “They could have killed you tonight. He’s been letting them get away with it, it’s his fault too.”

Arthur considered this. They could have killed him. It didn't seem real somehow, like it was a different person struggling in that lake just hours ago. He felt very far removed from it, here in his hospital bed.

Mr Muirden would probably be fired for what had happened. Val and Cenred might get expelled. It didn't fill him with as much pleasure as it might have done once. He loved his father, even now, but he couldn't deny that Uther had robbed people of money they might have worked their whole lives to earn. That kind of bitterness festered. They were wrong to take it out on him but Arthur didn't want to see them in jail for it too. What would that solve?

He could tell Merlin thought Arthur should call the police, and he could also tell that Merlin wasn't going to say anymore about it. It was hard to express how grateful Arthur was for that.

"I think he's learned his lesson," Arthur said lightly. "The rest too, probably." 

"I know. I just... I hate them for what they did to you," Merlin said, jaw tight.

“Yeah. Sit down, though. Too tired to be mad now.”

Merlin’s face softened and he sat on the chair next to the bed.

“Okay. As long as you promise we can be mad later.”

“Furious,” Arthur said. “Livid, if you like. We can even be, what’s it called? _Incandescent._ ”

“Ooh, I’ve always wanted to be incandescent. It sounds a bit painful though.”

“It can be,” Arthur said solemnly. “You have to exercise caution.”

“Maybe I’ll just stick to being incensed, I don’t wanna hurt myself.”

“Very sensible.”

Merlin laughed and almost instantly stopped.

“Why are you joking around? What they did tonight…”

“I’m a bit high,” Arthur confided and Merlin snorted again in spite of himself.

It wasn’t that, not really. Arthur didn’t know how to say that it was all bearable since he found out that Merlin didn’t betray him. That he did have at least one friend after all. A friend who saved him from drowning, no less.

A friend who was looking out for him right now; indignant on his behalf, ready to go to battle for him. Even before all the trouble started, Arthur didn’t remember ever having a friend like that.

“I thought you set me up tonight,” he said, before he could stop himself. The mere act of admitting it made his eyes hot and prickly and suddenly the events of the night didn't feel quite so distant.

Merlin looked horrified.

"I never would," he said fervently. "I know we haven't known each other that long but I... I never would, Arthur." 

Arthur felt his eyes fill up and he shut them, hoping Merlin might not see. But the gentle press of a tissue against his cheek told him otherwise.

It wasn't just the horrors of earlier on, it was the relief of knowing he had Merlin now that made the tears trickle down. He'd been on his own for such a long time...

"I thought you'd left me to them..." he said, voice cracking.

“No! I went to the toilet, and they must have been waiting, because you were gone when I got back. At first I thought you went to the toilet too, so I waited a while, and then I went looking round the campsite and you weren’t there. Then I realised no-one was there and I knew that they must have come and got you and-”

Merlin trailed off, choked.

“I nearly didn’t find you in time.”

Now it was Merlin's turn to be close to tears. He looked so miserable that Arthur was half getting up to reassure him even before he remembered he was effectively cocooned inside a swathe of blankets.

“You did find me though,” he said, dislodging the cocoon enough to sneak his good hand out. 

Once it was out he didn’t quite know what to do with it, but somehow Merlin was suddenly holding it and that seemed just fine.

Odd, but no odder than anything else that had happened tonight.

And the approving nod the doctor gave the pair of them was the cherry on the cake, really.

 

***

 

Arthur was discharged from the hospital the next day in time for dinner at the campsite. It was a solemn affair, with barely anyone speaking, and most of his classmates red-eyed and subdued.

Arthur had been worried about facing them again but it became obvious fairly quick that the mood had changed. No-one was mocking him, or even sending a smirk his way, and the only time they looked at him was to cast a quick, guilty glance at his bandaged arm.

It was awkward in its own way and he was glad when he could retreat to the tent with Merlin for the night.

“They seemed suspiciously quiet,” he muttered to Merlin.

“They all got bollocked. For like, three hours this morning. Mr Muirden literally shouted himself hoarse, it was kind of frightening. They’re all in their tents writing you apology letters now; Alvarr suggested it as a way to make amends.”

“I’m sure those’ll be heartfelt,” Arthur said sardonically. 

“Cenred cried,” Merlin said and Arthur started in surprise. “And Catrina did too, a bit, and Val was all white and shaky. When Mr Muirden told them you couldn’t swim, that you could have died, they were… They had no idea.”

He broke off.

“They won’t bother you again. I think they got more of a scare than you did in the end.”

“I wasn’t scared,” Arthur said mulishly and Merlin laughed.

“Alright, Chuck Norris, I didn’t mean to impugn your honour. I was scared, though.”

Arthur glanced up to see Merlin’s eyes had gone a little bright.

“When I couldn’t find you. And I knew something bad had happened and I looked everywhere and you weren’t there. And then when I saw you in the water… and I got you out and you were freezing cold and I just-”

“Hey. I’m alright,” Arthur said softly. “Thanks to you.”

Merlin scrubbed a little at his face.

“Thanks to yourself," he said seriously. "You were the one who shouted me. I’d have never have gone the right way in the woods otherwise.”

Arthur considered a moment.

“I don’t know why I shouted you when I thought you sold me out. Maybe a part of me knew better.”

Merlin smiled and even in the dim light of the torch, it was rather radiant. 

“Because we’re tent buddies. I told you it was an unshakeable bond! You know my parents met on a camping trip?"

“Mine met on a night bus,” Arthur said, remembering the story his father had told him so many times. "He gave up his seat for her and then she threw up all over his shoes."

Merlin guffawed.

“Throwing up on someone's shoes is also a unshakeable bond, I reckon.”

“Yeah,” Arthur said, watching the shadows from the torch play on the ceiling. "Merlin? Can I tell you a secret?"

“Yeah.”

“I miss my dad. I know what he did was wrong and I hate him for it sometimes but... I still wish he was around.”

Arthur wrapped his good arm around his waist, suddenly vulnerable. He'd never told anyone that. He hadn't really talked about his dad at all since he'd been sent away.

“Of course you do,” Merlin said firmly. "He didn't stop being your dad just because he did something bad. My dad walked out on my mum when I was eight and I think he's a right bastard for that, but I still wish he'd come back."

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I think it's normal. No-one's ever completely bad, after all."

There was a funny feeling in Arthur's chest, like a knot finally loosening.

“Not even Cenred?” he said, suddenly feeling lighthearted.

Merlin wrinkled his nose.

“Actually the jury may be out on that one.”

He looked across at Arthur's bandaged arm.

“Need your meds yet?”

“Nah,” Arthur said. "It's just a little itchy."

Merlin looked thoughtful.

“So… they were definitely bees, not wasps?”

“I was a little distracted at the time, Merlin,” Arthur said drily. 

“No, it’s just… if they were bees then they’ll have died once they stung you,” Merlin said mournfully.

“Are you actually feeling more sorry for the bees than for me?”

Merlin gave him a cheeky grin.

“Well, yeah. I mean, you’re still alive.”

“This is unbelievable.”

“I think you mean… _un-bee-lievable._ ”

“Wow. Get out.”

“Hey, now. No need to _pun_ -ish me.”

“Seriously, leave.”

“Oh, that’s not nice,” Merlin said with a pout.

“What’s wrong, Merlin?” Arthur said innocently. “Bee in your bonnet?”

Merlin burst out laughing.

“Too soon.”

“Yeah, I suppose we should pause on the bee jokes until my arm isn’t swollen up like a balloon. Speaking of… I might need a little help with my pyjama top.” 

Arthur blushed slightly as he said it, but there was no way he was going to manoeuvre that one on his own.

To his surprise, Merlin appeared to be blushing too.

“Oh! Er, of course. Shall I… er-”

Slowly he began to unbutton Arthur’s shirt and ease it off his shoulders. Arthur didn’t know if he was imagining that the air between them became a little charged once he was shirtless.

Wishful thinking, perhaps. Merlin was awfully cute when he smiled.

“Okay, er… maybe just raise your arms?”

Merlin grazed against his skin as he gently tugged the pyjama top on. Arthur wished he brought something a little more stylish than his old Bugs Bunny-in-drag t-shirt but it was a little late for that now. At least it was comfortable.

The sleeve caught on Arthur’s bad arm and he winced slightly.

“Sorry!” Merlin said, leaning in to untuck it. “Let me just…”

The movement brought their faces very close together. They froze for a second, looking at each other.

Then Merlin pressed a small, sweet, hesitant kiss to the corner of Arthur’s mouth. He lingered there, and Arthur could feel the puff of his breath on his cheek.

“I haven’t read this wrong, have I?” he mumbled into Arthur’s skin.

“No,” Arthur whispered. 

And then turned his head so they could kiss again.

 

(“Oh, my dear boy,” Gaius clucked when he saw Arthur’s arm. “I am so sorry I made you go.”

“Don’t be silly, Gaius,” Arthur said happily. “Best trip ever.”)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Arthur has his hand held in a bee hive and is thrown into a lake when he can't swim.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Also, if you're thinking that the presence of bees in this story was totally bizarre, then you're not wrong my friend. You are not wrong.


End file.
